Educational Science

Mars rover is spying on the sun's far side to hunt for hidden, dangerous sunspots

In their quest to identify and track potentially dangerous sunspots hidden on the far side of the sun, scientists have turned to an unlikely ally: NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars. Normally, the far side of the sun remains hidden from us and our space telescopes, which are positioned in orbit...

China's malfunctioning Mars rover may have found evidence of recent water on the Red Planet

Mars may have had liquid water on its surface as recently as 400,000 years ago, data from China's Zhurong rover suggests. Researchers used three of the craft's instruments to sample sand dunes from Mars' Utopia Planitia, a low-lying region in the northern hemisphere. In the region's' distinct, salty cracks, researchers...

The United Arab Emirates' Martian orbiter Hope just provided a striking new view of Deimos, one of Mars' two small moons. According to findings presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting this week, the observations from a flyby on March 10 indicate that Deimos is made of the same materials...

Mars had an extreme climate shift 400,000 years ago, Chinese rover finds before its demise

China's Zhurong Mars rover has found evidence of a dramatic shift in Mars' climate 400,000 years ago, in the form of dark ridges laid on top of bright dunes that ripple across the sands of Utopia Planitia, which the rover is exploring. Scientists led by Li Chunlai from the National...

See the first clear images of 'sun rays' on Mars in eerie new NASA photos

NASA's Curiosity rover recently snapped a stunning shot of dazzling sun rays shining through unusually high clouds during a Martian sunset. It is the first time sun rays have been clearly visible on the Red Planet. Curiosity captured the new image on Feb. 2 as part of a series of...

Bizarre Martian 'book' spotted by NASA's Curiosity rover

NASA's Curiosity rover snapped an intriguing picture of a tiny Martian rock that looks surprisingly like a fossilized book on the surface of the Red Planet. The rover captured the image of the peculiar book-like rock on April 15 — the 3,800th Martian day, or sol, of its mission —...

'Building blocks of life' discovered on Mars in 10 different rock samples

NASA's Perseverance rover has found a diverse menagerie of organic molecules in a Martian crater, a new study reports. Organic compounds are molecules composed of carbon, and often include other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Previously, scientists had detected several types of organic molecules of Martian...

Mars helicopter Ingenuity phones home, breaking 63-day silence

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter's two-month silent stretch is over. Ingenuity got in touch with its handlers on June 28 via its robotic partner, the Perseverance rover, NASA officials announced on Friday, June 30. It was the first such communication since April 26, when the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper went dark...

NASA's Curiosity rover snaps extremely detailed 'postcard' of Martian landscape after waking up from a 'brain-boosting nap'

NASA's Curiosity rover recently snapped a stunningly detailed postcard of the Martian landscape, showing the sunlight shifting between morning and afternoon. The wandering robot beamed the picturesque scene back to Earth shortly after waking up from a brain boosting nap. The rover captured the memento April 8, or Sol 3,794...

NASA rover snaps photos of ancient 'waves' carved into Mars mountainside

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has photographed rocks imprinted with tiny ripples from an ancient lake. And these tiny ripples are making waves on Earth, as they are the clearest evidence yet that water once existed on the Red Planet. The ripple marks were discovered frozen in Martian rock on the...